Lionsgate has begun production on The Long Walk, an adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novel which will be directed by The Hunger Games‘ Francis Lawrence, and the film has added seven young actors to its ensemble cast along with veterans Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and Judy Greer (Jurassic World).
Featuring in the film will be Garrett Wareing (Ransom Canyon), Tut Nyuot (The Witcher: Blood Origin), Charlie Plummer (National Anthem), Ben Wang (American Born Chinese), Jordan Gonzalez (Pretty Little Liars: Summer School), Joshua Odjick (Welcome to Derry) and Roman Griffin Davis (Jojo Rabbit).
They join the previously cast Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) and David Jonsson (Industry).
The Long Walk, which King had written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, takes place in “a dystopian America that is entertained by the Long Walk — a competition in which 50 teenage boys walk without rest. Each competitor must keep walking faster than three miles per hour — or risk being eliminated.”
Lawrence will direct from a script by JT Mollner (Strange Darling) as well as producing through his company about:blank. Production will take place throughout the summer.
Man, I hope they don’t fuck this up.
The long walk is a dark, ugly story, but it’s also one of King’s best. There’s flaws in it, and there’s parts that just aren’t movie possible unless they go for a hard R rating out of the gate (and they should), but it merits a proper adaptation rather than just using the name and basic premise to make some shit the way a lot of book-to-movies happen.
Really this should be a play first. Imagine a production that takes place on a large treadmill with a rear-projection screen in the background. Sounds crazy, but dialogue is really important here, and it’d be a chance to nail that down.
I think the issues with adaptation are far deeper than the rating. I recall that I read this book cover to cover in one sitting, it was able to inspire the terror of stopping or slowing as a participant.
The written content takes place almost exclusively in the protagonists head.
Also, they don’t really do a deep dive… even a shallow dive into the structure of this dystopian world, unlike the world building like in something like hunger games or star wars.
I agree that a stage adaptation would probably work better than a Hollywood production… Where they’re going to for sure make significant changes to important story features just to make it work on the screen.
They’re going to make it a really really bad hunger games. Ultimately that’s what I think will happen.
Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about. The whole dystopian teenager death thing has been done to death. I really think that trying to flesh out the world will make it go that route.
This was a book I never knew anything about until I heard Just King Things cover it. I feel like there is potential for this to be really, really good depending on the choices they make.
